Vickers Racing, Chasing For The Little Guys

Brian Vickers got a hug from former teammate Jeff Gordon after Vickers' victory at Michigan last month. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Rick Minter | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com

Brian Vickers is making a habit this season of proving wrong the conventional racing wisdom.

First he got in a crash with Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sport’s most popular driver, during the season-opening Daytona 500, but wound up getting broad support from fans across the board, including a good many members of the “Junior Nation.”

“I didn’t see that one coming,” Vickers said with a chuckle as he sat in the shadows of his motorcoach prior to the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “It’s been a wild year, for good and for bad.

“I was pleasantly surprised by the fan reaction. There’s no doubt that Earnhardt Jr. is the most popular driver in the sport, and when the fan base as a whole, including his own fans, sided against him in the fact that he just wrecked me, and said it was inappropriate I was, as I said, pleasantly surprised.”

Vickers said the reaction also shows that it doesn’t pay to underestimate the knowledge of NASCAR’s fan base, as some in the sport tend to do at times.

“They saw the incident for what it was,” he said. “Our fan base as a whole is an amazing group of individuals. I had a new respect for them. You can’t fool them. They pay more attention to what’s really going on than they get credit for sometimes….

“They were able to put aside who their favorite driver was and view the situation for what took place.”

Vickers also addressed his decision back in 2006 to leave the powerful Hendrick Motorsport team and sign on with the Red Bull team, then a start-up operation.

“It was the most difficult decision I’ve ever made in my racing career and in my personal life as well,” he said, adding that it was in two parts – one about whether to leave Hendrick and the second on where to go after the first decision was made.

He said the decision to leave Hendrick was due in part to the emotional wounds left behind by the Hendrick plane crash, which killed several of his friends and co-workers, including his close friend and car owner Ricky Hendrick.

“It was difficult for me…just going to work thinking about that every day,” he said.

The other was his team’s poor performance despite the Hendrick equipment.

“We weren’t performing to the level of expectations that I had, or Rick (Hendrick) had or Ricky had,” he said. “I could have stayed and debated about that, but for whatever reason it was it wasn’t working, and they didn’t want to make any changes. I was left to make the change, so I did.”

Ironically, he said that decision has worked out for the better from the personal standpoint.

“I’m as close or closer to the people at Hendrick Motorsports now than I ever have been,” he said. “I’m as close or closer to Rick than I’ve ever been, and I’m very grateful for that. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”

He said that he had opportunities with established teams, but chose Red Bull and Toyota because of the potential he saw.

And he said the team’s early struggles weren’t all bad.

“It made me a better person, a stronger person and a better driver,” he said. “I’m grateful that I did it, and now we’re starting to realize that potential that we all saw in the beginning.”

Now he’s in contention for a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a position that usually goes to drivers from one of the powerhouse teams like Hendrick, Roush Fenway Racing or Joe Gibbs Racing. His seventh-place finish at AMS on Sunday moved him to 13th in the standings, just 20 points out of the elite 12. It was his eighth straight finish of 12th or better.

“To not be one of the bigger teams and still have a shot at the Chase is pretty cool,” he said. “I’m so proud of the performance of the team and how far we’ve come, the poles, the wins, but we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us.

“We’re up against some pretty challenging folks, but I know we’re capable of it.

“We just have to do the best job we can with the things we can control, and the rest is up to fate.”

2 Comments »

How do you figure Vickers racing for the “little guys”? He is no longer at Hendrick but does team Red Bull really qualify as the “little guys”? I think not. They are backed by Toyota’s deep pockets and the team is owned by a millionaire. I do NOT consider that the little guys. If he was driving for TRG or even the Wood Brothers I could see it, but not team Red Bull. They may only have two teams in Nascar but look how large a network they have in motorsports and sports in general. They have a soccer team called the Red Bulls that figures somewhere in this equation. No, Brian Vickers is not racing for the little guys.

JoeW: The key in your comment is two cars. That qualifies as little in Sprint Cup. Before you mention Stewart Haas, think Stewart Haas Hendrick. I do not think the owner of Red Bull is millionaire. I think he is closer to a billionaire but if you think Red Bull racing has an unlimited budget, guess again. I do not think Toyota is pouring as much money into individual teams as you may think. And, I am sure Red Bull is not getting ANY help from its soccer team.
Jim